(Note: You will also need a tripod with your spotting scope! Click here to open Optics Empire’s review of the best spotting scope tripods in a new tab.)
Celestron is a very well-known company in the astronomy niche, but turns out, they also produce a fantastic product in the hunting/birding niche!
Celestron’s 80mm Ultima Zoom spotting scope is quite the anomaly! Usually you simply can not expect any spotting scope as cheap as this one to function properly, yet this Celestron does much more than just function. It is an absolutely BRILLIANT spotting scope, if we’re talking value for what you pay!
Here’s something 99% of the spotting scopes in this price range could not do, ever: When we took this Celestron hunting with us, we expected the usual; a decent spotting scope that produced average results, at best. However, what we got from the scope was much different.
Here’s the story: We decided to test the Celestron’s capabilities by attempting to spot the first elk we saw, which was about 500 feet away at the time. We zoomed in on the elk, and sure enough, there it was in the lens, clear as day! We thought “Okay, sweet!” and kept going. We then got a glimpse of another suspected elk about 1500 feet away from us. So, we grabbed the Celestron to get a peep at the possible elk. We zoom in, and sure enough, we saw an elk! Keep in mind, this elk just looked like a brown blob through our eyes, but the Celestron made it visible. Can you say bang for your buck?
Now, I know I’ve really hyped you up to buy this scope after that story, but hang on now. There are a few flaws in it. I mean, you have to expect at least a few downsides from a scope this budget friendly, right?
Right. The most major flaw in this scope is that it has some fairly serious chromatic aberration at its upper-end magnifications (over 30). The thing is, since we’re only using this spotting scope for hunting (and not for looking at nature/digiscoping), we don’t have to worry about the prettiness of our scope’s image. We just need functionality, and believe me, this scope provides that.
Another downside to this scope is that it simply can’t do the things that more expensive spotting scopes can do. For instance, the next spotting scope on this list can keep from having a fuzzy image at even its higher magnifications. Sadly, there is not a budget spotting scope that can do that.
Overall, the Celestron 80mm Ultima Zoom Spotting Scope is the best value spotting scope for hunting in 2021. If you want to read how others are reviewing it on Amazon, click here (See at Amazon). (Note: Make sure you filter the reviews to only show reviews of the 80mm Ultima Zoom. There are multiple variations of this scope.)